


Badges of Honour

by Lunarblue21



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra, Ice Age (Movies)
Genre: Crossover, Gen, Hope you enjoy, and by that I mean it's just the two characters, and just interacting, character crossover, meeting in a liminal world, nothing else
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-25
Updated: 2013-08-25
Packaged: 2017-12-24 16:10:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,426
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/941930
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lunarblue21/pseuds/Lunarblue21
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Since it seems unlikely that this will be postable on ff.net because of the characteristics of the crossover - which I call a "character crossover" since it features two characters interacting and learning about/from each other - I've decided to post this on ao3. After the events of the Original film and Tarrlok's suicide attempt, two figures meet in a shadowy world....</p>
            </blockquote>





	Badges of Honour

This fic resulted because I made the bad decision of watching “Grave of the Fireflies” late into the night last evening, and the movie numbed me to my core so I had to find some way of distracting myself from the sheer disbelief it wrought in my about humanity acts toward each other. As I was preparing for bed the first lines of this fic came to me, so voila! I present to you another crossover, but it’s my character-based if anything else and it features Tarrlok (LoK) and Diego (Ice Age) and a lot of what I really hope might happen (BY SOME SHEER MIRACLE) for Tarrlok to live into the next Book. 

Character crossover: Tarrlok of LoK and Diego of Ice Age

 

“Where am I?” The man in blue said. He touched his face gingerly, wincing as his fingers came into contact with the fresh flaps of loose skin hanging from his cheeks. They were already beginning to harden into tough scabs which would then become a mass of scars. He sighed aloud, biting back a sudden groan.

“You’re here,” a caustic voice muttered, as he squinted his eyes to determine the location of the sound.

“And where is  _here_ , exactly?” Tarrlok asked, no sure whether to feel elated at the sound of another voice or on edge about what the answer might be.

“You’re in the nether world between life and death, sleeping and waking, birth and life,” the voice returned laconically, still tinged with a barbed tone. When the voice spoke again, the traces of a smile could be heard. “And you’ve been given a second chance – though it will be one that won’t come without some cost to you.”

“Well, this is all very comforting news,” Tarrlok pouted, crossing his arms. “Who are you, anyway? Is this the spirit world?”

“You wouldn’t want to know,” the voice chuckled at him. “Mainly because you might freak out at the sight of me.”

There was a pause as Tarrlok ruminated over the speaker’s words.

“I can tell you one thing about me though,” the voice went on. “Like you, I bear scars on my body. Scars that I wear as a mark of sacrifice for those I love.”

Tarrlok frowned at the words, inspecting the hard edges of his face again. He tried to hold back a sigh but his shoulders heaved as he exhaled wearily.

“So… like me, you bear scars of your own?” Tarrlok asked, fully expecting some kind of sarcastic retort. Naturally, he got one.

“Congratulations on believing what you can’t see; and you call yourself a spiritual man.”

“I  _am_  a spiritual man,” Tarrlok insisted, his gaze sweeping the floor for any entity that might be able to illuminate the area. Much to his relief his hand brushed against the handle of a lantern and a box of matches. “Obviously the spirits have put me here… in this… place… for some reason.”

He flicked a match against the matchbox, placing it into the lantern. Immediately the light chased the grey of the darkness away. He found himself smiling into the gloom, slowly beginning to feel much more at ease.

“I want to see your scars for myself,” he said to the voice. “I want to know the truth of it.”

“Well, if that’s what you want,” the voice muttered, sounding somewhat flustered. Tarrlok felt the ground tremble slightly underneath his feet as a large beast stepped into the realm of the light.

Tarrlok shrank away as his gaze took in the immensity of the creature, which resembled a large cat. He noticed two sharp incisors jutting out from besides the animal’s jaws, worry building inside him as he realised that his strange conversationalist might think him delectable.

“Who are you?” Tarrlok murmured, his teeth chattering loudly. The cat swiveled his head to stare at him, and Tarrlok felt pinioned to the ground by the intense green gaze of the feline. After a moment the unusual entity granted him the barest of crooked smiles.

“Name’s Diego, friend,” the sabre said, his voice a low growl. He raised his eyebrows at the man before gracefully sauntering further into the light as Tarrlok watched him, filled with apprehension which turned into astonishment as he noticed several large scars – at least three of them – running down alongside the feline’s right side. Though the animal had a luscious furry coat, the reddened scars were demarcated against it, almost like a badge.

 _Of honour,_ he couldn’t stop from thinking even as his jaw dropped in disbelief.

“Well, are you going to introduce yourself to me or are you just going to continue gaping at my scars?” Diego grumbled.

Tarrlok rose, somewhat unsteadily to his feet, keeping a careful watch on the immense cat in front of him. Diego shot him an amused glance, almost as if he was telling him  _Stop acting so antsy. I’m not gonna eat you._

The former Republic City chairman of the council cleared his throat,

“I am Tarrlok, the Northern Water Tribe representative to Republic City,” Tarrlok answered, staring the cat in the eye, beyond caring now whether or not his words meant anything to the potentially hostile creature. He wondered if Diego had been sent to him by the spirits before pushing away the thought.

“I know what you’re thinking,” Diego purred.

 _I don’t like this cat. He reads minds,_ Tarrlok thought to himself with irritation.

“And let me set the matter straight, Councilman. We’re in a nether world, and the spirits of yours had no part in this.”

“Then why I am here?” Tarrlok exploded, beginning to pace the area. He crossed his arms, shooting a glare at Diego whilst his lips puckered in a pout. The cat merely chuckled at him.

“I don’t know myself either, really, except that I came across a woman I wronged and killed in this nether world and she’s granted me her forgiveness since she saw how much I sacrificed for her son, but what I do know is that our paths might not cross again, Tarrlok councilman.”

Tarrlok huffed at the cat,

“So… we might be still alive? Or returning to the world of the living?” he asked, his face brightening.

“It’s possible,” Diego agreed. The sabre indicated his scars, offering the Councilman a warm smile, even though his face slid sideways in his attempt. Tarrlok was left wondering if the cat’s incisors gave him that permanent half-smile look.

The cat’s sigh ripped Tarrlok away from his musings.

“I hope I’ll be able to catch up with Manny and that sloth in time to say goodbye to the baby,” he murmured.

Tarrlok felt it was only fair to voice his own thoughts.

“I hope I’ll be able to cross paths with Avatar Korra and fully redeem myself in her eyes.” He groaned. “Why didn’t the suicide attempt work?”

“Because there’s something more for both of us to do,” Diego replied, sounding confident that he knew what the future held – for him, at least. “We have a chance for a new life away from the former confines that snared us. I’m taking it, even though it’s painful.”

“I can see that it was, and is going to be,” Tarrlok said dryly, his gaze fixated on Diego’s reddened scars again.

“Mind your own business,” Diego snarled. “You’re going to undergo a lot of painfulness as well to achieve your new life.”

Tarrlok shrugged, accepting that the sabre was right. His mind went back to the stories he’d heard of Avatar Aang and Fire Lord Zuko. Apparently, after they’d defeated the Fire Lord, they’d both discovered that they both bore scars, whereupon they decided that they were ‘scar buddies.’

The councilman extended a hand to the large feline, now sure that Diego meant him no harm.

“Scar buddy?” he asked.

Diego sent him a knowing smirk as he shook his hand.

“Scar buddy,” he declared.

Just then, the howls of the wind echoed throughout the area. They swirled around the sabre until he was almost invisible and then snaked around Tarrlok’s legs.

“I’m returning to my land,” Diego said. “Good luck!”

“Good luck to you as well!” Tarrlok replied as the winds rushed around him.

The next moment his hand made contact with the silkiness of the warm yellow sands, unsure of what he’d even witnessed.  _That cat and I… our scars… they are our badges of honour,_ was his last thought before he heard a voice calling his name frantically.

He opened his eyes slowly, finding himself face to face with Avatar Korra. 

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [The Emblemed Jacket](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1158552) by [laratoncita](https://archiveofourown.org/users/laratoncita/pseuds/laratoncita)




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